McKenna on KIRO: Send a GIF, get indicted for assault

KIRO 97.3 host Dave Ross asked Rob about a bizarre case out of Texas in which a Twitter user allegedly intentionally sent a flashing GIF image to a Newsweek reporter, a known epileptic, causing a seizure. A grand jury in Dallas indicted the Maryland man on an aggravated assault charge.

Dave Ross: “And now the person who sent the tweet has been arrested for it, so, tell me the legal underpinnings of this.”

Rob McKenna: “Well, it’s assault. He’s used a different kind of weapon that, fortunately, people hadn’t thought of before. But it seems pretty clearly to be an assault, since he intentionally sent this image which he believed would harm the person who would view it.

“So, I think that it looks like a pretty clear-cut case, unless he can persuade a jury that he didn’t actually believe he was harming the guy.”